Quinoa’s salty secret

Published: 13 Jun 2018

A study into the breeding of salt-tolerant crops has made an important finding, which could prove instrumental in long-term efforts to address global food security.

The research, published in the journal Cell Research, found that quinoa, which is naturally salt-tolerant, could serve as a model for developing salt-tolerant varieties of related crops including spinach and sugar beets.

“This latest research is helping to address this challenge by taking a new approach to the breeding of salt-tolerant crops. We focussed on quinoa due to its natural resistance to abiotic stresses such as salinity, drought and low temperatures,” Professor Sergey said.